Quick-thinking 4-year-old alerts tenants about fire

4-year-old swings into action after hearing alarm

Jessica DeZalia holds her 4-year-old son Trystan DeZalia in front of their Fox Run apartment Saturday June 21, 2014, in Clifton Park, NY. It was Trystan that heard a neighbor's smoke alarm and alerted family members of an early morning fire in their apartment complex. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union) less

Jessica DeZalia holds her 4-year-old son Trystan DeZalia in front of their Fox Run apartment Saturday June 21, 2014, in Clifton Park, NY. It was Trystan that heard a neighbor's smoke alarm and alerted family ... more

Trystan DeZalia has a great story to tell his friends when he starts kindergarten in the fall.Saturday morning, he was the only one who heard a smoke detector going off in the apartment next door. He yelled to wake his parents, who were greeted with smoke when they opened their front door.

"He wasn't sure what it was, but he knew something was going on," said Jessica DeZalia, holding her proud, but shy 4-year-old on her hip outside the family's second-floor apartment at the Fox Run Apartments. Trystan turns 5 next month.

The resident of the apartment next door, who State Police said was a 26-year-old man, fell asleep after he turned his stove on, and it started a fire in the kitchen at about 5 a.m. The man was still asleep when emergency personnel carried him out. He was treated at the scene and released.

Jessica DeZalia said she hadn't seen the neighbor's car and assumed he wasn't home. She called 911, then knocked on all her neighbors' doors to wake them. State troopers from the Clifton Park barracks and the Vischer Ferry fire chief arrived within minutes, DeZalia said.

One trooper gave Trystan a high five. He loved seeing all the fire trucks and police cars, DeZalia said. It was a scary situation with a good resolution, she said. Firefighters contained the fire to the apartment where it started, and everyone was back in their homes by Saturday evening. No injuries were reported.

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"I just think about what might have happened if he hadn't woken up," DeZalia said.